dan harmon

We love Shirley on 'Community' almost as much as we love Yvette Nicole Brown, so this exclusive behind-the-scenes clip from the Season 2 DVD (out today) is a real gem.

Creator Dan Harmon sat down with Brown -- in her full Father Guido Sarducci get-up from their last paintball duel, naturally -- to pat himself on the back for something he believes he achieved this year. "I fully and completely captured the 'Black Woman Experience' with your character this year," Harmon said straight-faced, to which Brown appropriately let out one of her fabulous signature laughs.

The clip also shows Harmon and Joel McHale reenacting a scene between Shirley and Britta (Gillian Jacobs), horrible imitations and all, before really diving into what's important: Season 3.

So what does Brown want to see happen for Shirley this season (premieres Thurs., Sept. 22, 8PM ET on NBC)? Note: We wholeheartedly support all her ideas!

Now for the fun part: Watch the video and tell us what YOU want to see happen in Season 3 in the comments. We'll select one lucky winner at random to receive the 'Community' Season 2 DVD.

We know the 'Community' gang will be taking biology in Season 3 (premieres Thurs., Sept 22, 8PM ET on NBC), and news broke this morning that Michael K. Williams (a.k.a. Omar from 'The Wire') will be popping by to play their new professor.

What we haven't heard yet? "Me, Annie and Abed move in together," Donald Glover spilled. "
I hope I'm allowed to say that." Creator Dan Harmon said it was more of a possibility for Annie to move in, but did confirm that Troy and Abed will be living together this season: "They definitely are living together, Ernie and Bert-style, from the beginning of the season." What does Danny Pudi think about that? "I think our room will be a blanket fort."

Then there's Dean Pelton (a.k.a. Jim Rash) who's been bumped up to series regular -- so, obviously, expect plenty more awesome costumes this year. "I think I have officially become just a doll for the writers to imagine what else my body should be put in," Rash laughed. "They saw my legs and they were like, 'Oh man, we gotta get more of that on TV.'"

We caught up with Harmon, Glover, Pudi, Rash and stars Joel McHale, Yvette Nicole Brown, Gillian Jacobs and Ken Jeong on the Comic-Con red carpet to find out a little more about the new season.
(And, while Alison Brie wasn't there, Annie's Boobs was, shilling the Season 2 DVD.)

Watch the video to see who has a secret, who wants to learn more at Greendale, who's taking a position of authority and who's losing an arm. (Kidding about one of those ... we think.)

The sold-out audience at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills was "Pop-Pop!"-ing last night, as the cast and crew of NBC's 'Community' took to the stage to regale us with anecdotes, spoilers and insanity on the 11th night of PaleyFest 2011.

TV Squad was on hand for the press line and panel, where a surprising number of spoilers hints were dropped in regards to the last few episodes of the season, which will see the mystery surrounding Shirley's baby solved, and homage paid to a number of high-concept movie genres ... All in a day's work for the gang at Greendale! Join us after the jump for more. Spoilers ahead.

They've paintballed in the halls of Greendale Community College, gone to "space" on a KFC-themed flight simulator and been stop-motion animated, all in the name of comedy.

So what's next for 'Community'? Creator Dan Harmon mentioned yesterday in their TCA panel that an upcoming episode will revolve around the mecca of all fantasy role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons (Harmon talked about it with fellow Squadder Joel Keller in December). The episode will take place entirely in the study room, confirmed Harmon. "They'll just be sitting at a table playing."
OK, so we all know that with this show, nothing is ever "just" what it seems. Can't wait to see how they shake things up stylistically ...

The last time I spoke to 'Community' creator Dan Harmon in September, he had already written the script for the stop-action-animated Christmas episode that is set to air Thursday at 8:00PM on NBC. While he had an idea of how long doing a stop-action animation on an episode would take, he had no idea how truly involved the process is.

"One thing that I didn't anticipate was that every shot was an effects shot," he told me earlier this week. "Post-productively there's stuff you have to do. If a character jumps up in the air and clicks his heels, you're rotoscoping things out that are helping that person stay in the air while they're jumping in the air, and I thought that was fascinating."

Even as late as Monday, there were still some effects and music left to insert. But even in rough cut form, the episode is not only one of the best of the season, it shows quite well how Abed (Danny Pudi) sees the nutty world of Greendale Community College, as the entire episode is a product of his unconscious.

Speaking of Abed, Harmon also mentioned that this week they are shooting an episode where the gang plays the classic role-playing game 'Dungeons & Dragons,' with Abed (natch) as the Dungeon Master. More on both episodes after the jump.

Greendale Community College is a very special kind of educational establishment, catering to the drop-outs, the rejects, the elderly and even those who like to forge their qualifications.

It's also one of the most entertaining places to spend 30 minutes of your time on a Thursday evening, even up against such ratings heavy-hitters as CBS' 'The Big Bang Theory' and Fox's 'Bones'.

Perhaps you've never seen an episode of NBC's 'Community,' now in its second season (quite likely, since the show is criminally underrated), but if you only watch one Halloween episode this year, you should make it this one -- it's even on at a special time, 8.30PM ET, so you don't have to choose between those geniuses on CBS and the ... different type of geniuses that populate 'Community'.

Besides, this episode has zombies, and Ken Jeong in skintight Spandex; what more could you ask for from a TV show?

When you talk to 'Community' creator Dan Harmon, you have to expect to hear a certain amount of verbal gymnastics in his replies to your questions.

For instance, when our conversation turned to what he thought of one of his stars, Alison Brie, who does double-duty on 'Mad Men,' Harmon said this: "Alison is like this stem cell when it comes to the characters she can inhabit, which is a really cool thing." When I asked him about how the bromance between Abed (Danny Pudi) and Troy (Donald Glover) will be explored this season, he said, "I want to celebrate it and I want to challenge it, and I want to challenge it by celebrating it, and I want to celebrate it by challenging it."

Sometimes, you just have to let Harmon go on his verbal journeys, which leads to very long interviews. In fact, we spoke for almost an hour earlier this month about the upcoming second season (returning Thursday, September 23 at 8PM ET on NBC), including how he's going to explore the romantic entanglements from the season one finale, the stop-action animated Christmas episode he's planning, and what it'll be like to go head-to-head with the juggernaut known as 'The Big Bang Theory.'

If you loved the brilliant 'Modern Warfare' paintball-battle episode of 'Community' (and who didn't?), then prepare yourself for similar over-the-top spectacle and merciless pop-culture riffing throughout season 2, which begins Sept. 23. Because 'Community' may have to pull out all the stops to save itself from the steamroller that is 'The Big Bang Theory.'

'Community' proved a modest hit last year, but this fall, it'll be facing off against one of TV's most popular comedies when CBS, in an unprecedented assault on NBC's age-old Thursday comedy supremacy, moves 'Big Bang' to Thursdays at 8PM. 'Big Bang' averages 14 million viewers each week, 'Community' 5 million.

In an extensive recent interview with New York magazine's Vulture blog, 'Community' creator Dan Harmon details many of the weapons he plans to deploy this season, hoping they'll detonate against his new opponent with paintball-like force.

No real surprise, though 'Community' could have gone either way. Creator Dan Harmon told the cast about the renewal and recorded it. Look at Yvette Nicole Brown's face as she thinks the show might have been canceled.

At the same NBC TCA party where I spoke to Joel McHale, I also ran into Community creator Dan Harmon. Suffice to say, he's a chatty fellow. I started off by asking him how a first-time show runner like him prepares to be in front of a ballroom full of reporters, as he had been earlier in the day. His answer was pretty interesting: they get briefed and told we're a bitter lot.

Harmon's claim to fame before Community was that he helped create The Sarah SilvermanProgram for Comedy Central, and he was one of the few people who thinks that the network creative process has been as smooth, if not smoother, than the process for basic cable.

He also got extremely effusive about having Chevy Chase on his show; I was going to edit his epic response to my question about Chevy, but it's so loopy that I figured I'd just let it stand as is. Interview after the jump.

With the much-anticipated premiere of Community finally bowing tonight, I figured it was a good time to pull out the interview I did with Joel McHale when I encountered him at the NBC party during the TCA press tour. I didn't talk to McHale about his current NBC show, however; I talked to him about his previous NBC show.

Fans of the British sitcom The IT Crowd may remember that an American pilot was shot and the show was announced for NBC's midseason schedule a couple of years back, with McHale playing Roy and Richard Ayoade bringing his breakout role of Moss over from the original. Only, the pilot never saw the light of day, and a series was never picked up.

I asked McHale about what caused the show to be dropped and if he has any regrets over the show's flame-out. Then, as a person standing in front of the host of The Soup would tend to do, I asked him about what in the reality TV landscape gets him charged up. Interview is after the jump.

This is the second clip featuring Joel McHale today. I swear I didn't plan it that way. This one is from the new NBC fall sitcom Community, and you know what? It actually looks really funny. McHale plays a lawyer who loses his license and becomes a community college study group leader. Chevy Chase is an older student, and the show also features The Daily Show's John Oliver. It's from Sarah Silverman Program producer and writer Dan Harmon and Arrested Development directors Joe and Anthony Russo. (Video also here.)

Mark your calendars. Sarah Silverman's much-delayed Comedy Central show The Sarah Silverman Program will finally get its debut on February 1st at 10:30pm. A six-episode run of the program was scheduled to premiere this past summer - capitalizing on the positive press Silverman garnered for her concert film Jesus is Magic and her appearance in the documentary The Aristocrats. I suppose Comedy Central thought the market for clever, offensive comedy from beautiful women was saturated last summer so they waited to spring the goods on us in '07.

Silverman's television outing was conceived by Silverman along with Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab - names comedy fans may remember as being responsible for the failed Fox pilot turned cult favorite Heat Vision and Jack.